Well Joe didn't come into the locker room at halftime, but somebody said something to light a fire under these guys....Prince has been the man the last two games hitting 19-21 shots and pretty much kept the Pistons in striking distance in the first half and hit some key baskets during the second half. Sheed was the man in the third qtr hitting 4 Threes and then Rip who was 1-11 in the first half, hit 5 straight jumpers in the 4th to keep the Pistons double digit lead in tact.

The turnovers in the first half were to our detriment, but the sixers had enough throughout the game and the Pistons scored 20 pts off the turnovers to pretty much turn the game in their favor. They also scored 37 points in the paint to go with the six three pointers.

Bottom line, we were aggressive in the second half and need to come out with the same intensity on Tuesday. Even though tonights game was must win....game 5 on Tuesday is definitely a must win too. the magic number is 90 points

Yeah, you never know with our team. I expect them to close-out in 6, but I also wouldn't be shocked if they mail-it-in Tuesday and march back to Philly down 3-2 and muttering something about "rough" and "right".

1) Player of the game, TP. Tashaun just had himself a ball game. 10 for 11 from the floor. 2nd most rebounds on the team. 4 steals. Plus he did a great job for the 4th game in a row on AI.

2) Sheed came up huge with those 3's and tough rebounding. He changed the momentum in a big way in the 2nd half. Dude really needs to concentrate when passing the ball against Philly though. They are hounding us and Sheed is just throwing really sloppy passes up top (where a mistake gives them a fast break).

3) Rip- He was cold as ice in the 1st half, but started catching and shooting in the 2nd. With the open looks, he found his rhythm and made it impossible for Philly to come back.

OVERALL:
Why did it take so long to figure out that we needed to protect the ball? The only way the Sixers are scoring is off of steals, or really bad shots. I hear the players talking about how the team is better when the move the ball and get easy shots. Well, I'm not sure you want the players in the mindset that they have to move the ball against this team. The more passes, the higher the liklihood of a steal. It's just like playing against the old NJ Nets, except these guys are not as good. Don't listen to Flip, just recycle that old game plan.

Didn't see the Pistons run to over take the Sixers. I was prepared, and in some ways, expecting a loss after the 1st half. I am still not convinced w/ this team's up and down performance and attitude. I remain a non-believer until this team starts showing up from tip-off every game onward. Kudos to the Diceman for playing after that broken nose. That took heart.

The Sixers pumped up the crowd when they played season highlights set to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Then Detroit guaranteed its season won’t unexpectedly cut-to-black.
All the euphoria the Sixers created after a 20-point win in Game 3 only grew as they raced to a 14-point first-half lead. The younger, faster, confident Sixers were taking it to the aging, slumping Pistons yet again.
Then those 59-win Pistons showed up in the third quarter. They haven’t reached five straight Eastern Conference finals by losing two straight road games to the seventh seed in the first round.

Injured Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins was at the game and waved his rally towel. First baseman Ryan Howard sent a videotaped message of support. … Wallace cracked up when the 76ers showed a “separated at birth” timeout video comparing an open mouth shot of him next to Jimmie Walker’s “JJ” character from “Good Times.”

Wow, I guess that was a heck of a comeback in the 3rd quarter! I got a peek at the boxscore at some point in the 2nd quarter, which was horrifying, as they already had 10 turnovers and were shooting well under 40%. As frustrating as this inconsistency is to all of us, I definitely appreciate the guts they showed in getting off the mat in this one.

Its tied up, 2-2. Now its a best of 3 series, with us having the homecourt advantage. Maybe some momentum? But like I mentioned after the last win, we won this one with no bench rotation at all. That is playing it dangerous.

Hayes got 3 minutes in this game. Three laugable minutes. Three minutes where Philly went into a feeding frenzy. It hurt us bad, and there was a carry over from the confindence Philly gained. To Flip's credit, at least he had enouhg sense to just keep it to the 3 minutes. (And not play Hunter and Theo at all.) Tay simply got no rest in the 2nd half at all.

Tay was the hero in this one. Eleven of twelve shots knocked down. Mostly going inside, but he hit a few clutch outside shots also. His offense was pretty much it for the first half to keep us somewhere near them.

Billups did nothing in the 1st half. Nothing at all. But he decided to start driving the ball down their throat in the 3rd quarter and started getting to the line. And he hit some threes to boot. Rip also did nothing in the 1st half, shooting 1 for about 13 or something like that. (Maybe he hit 2 shots.) Rip simply found his range in the 2nd half, pretty much all coming off screens. Sheed heated up too, getting some inside and finding his range on the long ball. Altogether, it ended up being enough offense.

Next game, what can we expect. Will Flip actually go into a game planning on just a 7 man rotation? Particularly Tay - will Flip plan on Tay playing 48?

I love that we won this game. But here it is, 4 games into the first round, and Flip still has no rotation.

Stuckey did not score but he had several assists and his energy was useful guarding Miller. Maxiell started the game, and played starters minutes with a good rest pattern as Dyess did play plenty of minutes off the bench. (15 in the first half and 5 in the second if memory serves.) Dyess hit some shots, and maybe seemed to have more energy than usual just because he is back in his very familiar role of being a bench player.

Maxiell did not score much, but look, nobody but Max had a block in this game for us. Max had 3. Max was continually seen fighting toward loose balls. His energy helped a ton. His defense helped a ton.

Philly is not that good. We could beat them with a 7 man rotation where we use the same starters as tonight and just Dyess and Stuckey coming off the bench. Stuckey would have to come in early for someone, and spell Rip, Billups, and Tay a bit each for sitting back down. And of course Dyess would take turns spelling Sheed then Maxy. But note, I said we could. To not expand this out to include Amir and Afflalo is not wise. A bit of foul trouble, or a minor injury, and a 7 man rotation becomes 6. Why not use 9 guys if you have them. We do. Flip should start next game using the right guys. And an actual rotation.

Pistons were way too tight early, Philly really lost this game with their inexperience. The fast paced attack is good for keeping teams off balance, but the lack of a quality halfcourt offense outside Andre Miller really hurt them. If the Pistons hold onto the ball and play slow, Philly can't compete.

I left the chat after the 1st quarter. I got sick of all the whining. I watched the game with my kids instead and found it much more enjoyable. I think it's really sad there are people that call themselves Piston fans actually rooting for the team to lose. Nice win for the good guys.

I left the chat after the 1st quarter. I got sick of all the whining. I watched the game with my kids instead and found it much more enjoyable. I think it's really sad there are people that call themselves Piston fans actually rooting for the team to lose. Nice win for the good guys.

Go Pistons!!!!!!!

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I enjoyed the chat. Watching them get killed sucked but being around other people feeling as frustrated as myself made it much easier. Then when they started winning it was really fun.

they actyally have 7 RELIABLE ballers (starters+maxi and stuck) so no wonder that boxscore shows that starters played 40+ minutes. Rest of our bench is not just ready for PO intensity level. As I have said : want better bench ? Then Davidson has to pay lux tax. It is practically impossible to form trustful bench from rookie contracts and veteran minimums. Yes, during a season everyone hoped that bench can get it done but reality shows that it is not that easy as fans think: even stuckey stats are plain awful.Even stuckey stats in this series are awful.

I left the chat after the 1st quarter. I got sick of all the whining. I watched the game with my kids instead and found it much more enjoyable. I think it's really sad there are people that call themselves Piston fans actually rooting for the team to lose. Nice win for the good guys.